The 3Delight for Maya plugin adds a 3Delight RIB Archive file type to Maya's File → Export All... and File → Export Selection... menu items.
The Export Process
The export operation can be customized by several parameters, detailed below. The parameters appear in the File Type Specific Options group of the Export All Options and Export Selection Options windows, or in the Options section of the file browser dialog when the Files of Type option is set to '3Delight RIB Archive'.
The chosen file name can contain all usual 3Delight for Maya tokens (see File Path Expressions). Most notably, the '@' and '#' tokens, which are replaced by the current frame number and padded current frame number, respectively. When exporting a RIB archive over a frame range, if the file name contains no frame number token, 3Delight for Maya will automatically add '_#' right before the file extension.
Once the file name and options are set, the RIB Archive export process begins. Required Hypershade shaders will be translated and compiled, and the geometry is processed and output to the RIB archive file.
The resulting RIB Archive files can be imported in a Maya scene using the File → Import... menu item.
The Export Options
The options for exporting RIB Archives follow closely the similarly-named attributes in the Render Settings.
The 3Delight RIB Archive export options.
Archive Format
Use Binary RIB
When this options is on, the RIB file will be saved in binary format, producing a smaller file. Turn this option off to produce a text RIB file, which is larger and slower to process but easier to read and edit. By default, this option is on.
This option controls if the RIB file will be compressed, producing a smaller file. By default this option is off.
Frame Range
Animation
This toggle enables rendering frames specified in the Frame Range instead of only the current frame. Note that if the chosen RIB Archive file name does not contain a frame number token, '_#' will be automatically added before the file extension. This toggle is off by default.
Frame Range
If the Animation toggle is on, specifies the range of frames to render (bounds are inclusive). The default range is [1..1].
Increment
Specifies the increment to use when going from one frame to the next in the frame range. For example, if the frame range is [1..6] and the increment is 2, only the following frames will be rendered: 1, 3, 5, 6 (note that the first and last frame are not skipped). The default increment is 1.
Motion Blur
All parameters in this section behave about the same as the Motion Blur Render Settings, described in the Quality: Motion Blur section. There are two differences: the Enable Camera Blur and Camera Samples options are omitted, since cameras are not exported to RIB Archive. Finally, since there is no render camera, the shutter angle used to determine the exposure duration must be provided by another group of parameters, explained below.
Shutter Angle From
This option lists a 'Custom Value' item, and all the cameras in the scene. The shutter angle of selected camera will be used to determine exposure duration. When 'Custom Value' is selected, the shutter angle is determined by the Custom Angle parameter.
Custom Angle
Defines the shutter angle to be used when Shutter Angle From is set to 'Custom Value'.